Natural Disaster
by Zee-Zee Magee
Summary: I'm cleaning out my drabble closet! The team after a natural disaster.I mention blood.


**A/N:** _Um, apparently I am in the mood for some Sophie whump this season! I blame Gina Bellman's brilliant acting skills! All of that Eliot whump this year is just making me mad! I wonder if that's the point… I think it's because my sister has a crush on Christian Kane while I have a crush on Aldis Hodge, so I don't want to hurt Hardison! Go harker! Christian Kane kicks ass and an angsty Nate is fun to play with! Well, that's my excuse for the day. Carry on! As always, all comments (even the mean ones) are acceptable to my eyes! No profanity for my virgin ears!_

There was an Earthquake but everyone's okay. Hardison has a small gash in his forehead from where a sign scraped across it on its downward spiral, but he'll be fine. Eliot has several bruises and scratches and a couple of broken ribs from holding up most of the part of the building that threatened to fall on the children he was protecting but he'll be fine. Parker is touching every single team member as often as she can, Hardison triple, but they aren't going to mention it because she'll be fine as long as they are. Nate has a limp from a little mishap where a whole bathroom wall fell on his leg while he was trying to protect Sophie and now he was refusing to be any more than five feet away from Sophie at all times but he was going to be fine. Sophie is bleeding from taking pressure from the part of the bathroom Nate had no chance in protecting her from but isn't going to say a thing because she isn't going to be fine. She couldn't tell the others because that would cause more harm than good and end up with everybody dying. She is just going to keep up the act until she passes out. By then it would be too late. By the time they noticed what happened, they'd be too far away and Nate… Eliot would force everybody to leave with Nate slung over his shoulder for trying to go back. It was the perfect plan and it was going to bloody well succeed. It had to. Of course, she forgot one, four, tiny little details. Nate kept his eyes trained on her and kept extremely close to her pace without even a hint of acknowledgement. Parker continued to randomly drop back behind her to look at something shiny she swore she had seen walking by. Eliot kept stopping for random breaks at times that were conveniently whenever she was starting to feel too much strain. Hardison was the most unsubtle out of the group but he still managed to spit out odd facts that coincide with most of her symptoms and he keeps distracting her with questions right around the times she starts feeling too tired to want to keep her eyes open. She forgot that Nate can read her. She forgot Parker has learned from her. She forgot Eliot knows her. She forgot Hardison cares about her. She forgot they're her family and they won't let her go willingly or otherwise.

Sophie is walking behind everybody because she knows it's too much for her to handle now. Hardison announces that there is this safe place a couple miles down the road that just so happens to be a health center that just so happens to have the supplies Sophie needs. Parker starts talking to him about how many things a person could find in a health center and how they should seriously consider staying there for a while because of the vending machines and other good things that some people could need like medicine to make pain go away for "Nate." Eliot just so happens to make a wrong turn that conveniently forces Nate to fall back in step with Sophie so they could get to the health center without any harm. Nate casually looks at Sophie as if he's trying to register if he could hold her hand instead of taking in how slowly she's walking. Sophie collapses shortly after their convenient wrong turn towards the health center Hardison just so happened to remember about that Parker just so happened to keep chatting about so Nate could conveniently catch her. Nobody is surprised that she doesn't even let out a gasp or a moan before she falls. They are slightly surprised by the speed with which Nate uses to make it to their grifter in time to catch her. They weren't surprised that Sophie was hurt. They weren't even surprised that she didn't tell them. They weren't even surprised at how close Nate got to accurately measure her injuries without her noticing. How could they be? They heard everything they needed to hear when the disaster happened. There was too much blood on the floor in the aftermath to just be the mark who tried to outsmart them. They knew simply from how long it took Nate to wake her up and everything that was said in order for it to happen, three words specifically that did it. She may be able to con the best but she could never con them, not again.

Nate carries her all the way to the center in record time. Eliot is only one step behind him as they start preparing the available spaces for surgery. Hardison and Parker have everything they need ready within seconds of entering. They work diligently to save their grifter in complete silence. They don't even need to speak to know what one of them needs. It takes them a while without any electricity but they always succeed. Eliot leaves abruptly after everything is done and disappears for a few hours. Hardison looks for supplies they'll need for recovery as soon as he feels the pulse Eliot confirmed was there to begin with. Parker goes really pale and starts talking about her past crusades as she walks off to find some shampoo and conditioner and other beauty products for her to steal. Nate finds himself a seat and glues himself to Sophie's side, whispering every truth he had ever hid from her; the three words are mentioned several times because the color in her cheeks started to come back after the first time. They all agree not to mention the fact that they almost lost her. They agree not to even think about what would have happened if they weren't there. She would never know that they could see through her even when she was pulling the greatest performance of her life, because she had yet to do so.

She didn't know her tells. She didn't know that her eyes grew slightly darker when she was in pain, only very slightly. She didn't know that her voice went a little sweeter when she was trying to distract them from herself. She didn't know that her hugs were a little tenser when she wasn't okay. She didn't know that her breathing was a little harder to hear when she was trying to protect them from herself, or the truth. She didn't know Hardison's fingers would start to go numb whenever she was in trouble, his eyes hurt when Eliot took a punch, his heart stopped when Parker gasped, his mouth would go dry whenever Nate's voice would hitch. She didn't know Parker's mind would start to buzz whenever Sophie was struggling with a mark, her muscles ached when Eliot wasn't growling at them, her hands would twitch when Nate stopped masterminding, her heart would flip sickeningly whenever Hardison's typing stopped. She didn't know Eliot's old scars would start to prickle whenever she did something that didn't go according to plan, his breath would stop when Parker's zip-line didn't sound, his fists would unclench when Nate was hurt, his ears would start hurting when Hardison stopped talking. She didn't know Nate's stomach would squeeze his heart to death whenever she was in pain, his mind would stop when Eliot got into a fight, his breath would hitch when Parker didn't answer, his fingers would ache when Hardison cried oops. They suspected Sophie had similar happenings whenever one of them was on the line. They just didn't know the truth any more than she did. They didn't know that her fingers would start twitching when Hardison wasn't on his computer, her stomach would curl whenever Parker's squeals of excitement weren't happening, her body tensed unnoticeably when Eliot wasn't talking, her concentration would disappear when Nate wasn't in her line of sight.

Waking up after an injury was always the hardest part of any job. Gaining consciousness brought feeling, like the feeling of a hand clasping onto your own in greedy wonder. It brought sound, like the sound of things breaking just barely outside the walls. It brought taste, like the taste of medicine that seemed to be helping the sudden rush of pain. It brought smell, like the smell of tears and fruity shampoos and conditioners and other beauty products. It also brought sight, when your eyes finally decide they've had enough with being closed and not knowing if the others were okay even though the other senses already confirmed that theory.

"Hi," Nate called with a smile as he stared down at the grifter with shiny eyes.

"HI," Sophie huffed back weakly as she took in the sights around her.

"I brought shampoo," Parker cheered innocently from the opposite side of the mastermind that was conveniently right beside the hacker.

"That's nice," Sophie smiled at the kind gesture.

"You're going to be fine," Hardison replied hoarsely as he kept his hand firmly on the thief's left shoulder, "Eliot says so."

"Okay," Sophie nodded at the statement.

"You idiot," Eliot gruffly replied when brown eyes finally fell on him, "You should have told us you were hurt sooner. We could have lost you."

"I know," Sophie acknowledged with a twinge of guilt.

"Don't scare us like that ever again," Nate ordered darkly, "I'm not losing you!"

"Okay," Sophie cried out as reality started to make itself known to her.

"You stopped breathing," Parker stated nonchalantly, "It was scary."

"Oh," Sophie gasped at how close a call it actually was.

"You nearly gave us a heart attack," Hardison responded as his grip on the thief grew tighter.

"Sorry," Sophie apologized to her family honestly.

"Yeah well," Eliot stumbled over the words in surprise of the apology so easily given, "Don't do it again and we might forgive ya!"

"I didn't mean to worry you," Sophie sighed out sadly, "I just didn't want you to get hurt. You would have gotten hurt if you knew."

"I love you," Nate admitted to distract her and apparently the others too.

"What?" Sophie gasped at the sudden admission.

"What?" Parker asked afraid her ears weren't working right after that one.

"Seriously?" Hardison demanded of the mastermind in frustration.

"You pick now to admit it?" Eliot growled angrily, "You're an idiot too."

"I love you," Nate repeated as he held the grifter's hand up to his lips to s how her how serious he really was, "I love you, Sophie Devereaux or whatever your name is."

"Oh," Sophie mumbled as shock seemed to consume her too, "Olive juice ooh."

"She means I love you too," Parker cheered at the truth, "She loves you too, Nate."

"Bout time you guys admitted it," Hardison rolled his eyes at the pair, "Now, I'm going to take Parker and Eliot out of here before all the weirdness kicks in."

"Agreed," Eliot nodded as the three left as quickly as possible.

"You love me?" Sophie questioned with actual tears in her eyes.

"Yes," Nate smiled at the question, "and you love me."

"Uh-huh," Sophie nodded along as those stupid tears kept coming.

"Good," Nate said as he kissed her forehead to show his affection, "Now, sleep."


End file.
